Butter has a particularly distinctive flavor and aroma. This flavor and aroma character is desirable for a number of food products. Such food products include oleaginous foods such as shortenings and emulsified spreads such as margarine. Also, a buttery flavor character is desirable in fried foods and baked goods such as cakes and cookies.
In standard butter manufacture, cream is separated from milk by centrifugation. After neutralization and pasteurization, the cream is ripened by inoculation with a bacterial culture known as a "starter". The amount of starter mixed with the cream is usually about 5%, although in some cases somewhat more can be used. Ripening is usually carried out at a temperature of from 50.degree. to 55.degree. F. overnight; this time period can be reduced to a few hours when the temperature during ripening is from 65.degree. to 70.degree. F. It is mainly during this ripening step that the distinctive flavors and aroma of butter are generated. See Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products (3rd Ed.), pp. 326-327.
The compounds contributing to the flavor and aroma of butter have long been a matter for discussion and conjecture. Some of the flavor character has been attributed to the lower carboxylic acids such as acetic, propionic and butyric acids. Another compound which contributes to the flavor and odor of butter is diacetyl, a yellow liquid having an extremely potent butter aroma. Other compounds isolated and identified as contributing to butter flavor and aroma include the lactones such as delta-decalactone (from butter oil) and delta-dodecalactone (from milk fat). See Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products, supra, at pp. 322-323.
It has been found that a particular component of butter provides what is characterized as a creamy flavor impression. From gas chromatography of a typical butter, it has been determined that at least the following compounds (in free form) contribute to this creamy flavor impression:
______________________________________ Compound Amount (ppm) ______________________________________ 9-decenoic acid 2 2-undecanone 1 2-tridecanone 6 2-pentadecanone 6 ______________________________________
Artificial or synthetic butter flavors used in various buttery flavored food products are frequently deficient in certain flavor characteristics. In particular, such butter flavors are missing the cream flavor impression of the above-noted compounds.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve the flavor impression of buttery flavored food products.
It is another object of the present invention to impart a creamy flavor impression to buttery flavored food products.
These and other objects of the present invention are hereinafter disclosed.